Commission on murders of journalists expected to be set up

BELGRADE -- The Serbian government is expected to adopt a decision on the establishment of a commission to investigate unsolved killings of journalists.

Veran Matić (file)

The decision will be made after the holidays, according to some announcements.

A letter was sent from the office of First Deputy PM Aleksandar Vučić to appropriate ministries in which consent is sought, and as soon as it arrives, the proposal will go to the government, reports Blic.

The initiator of the establishment of the commission Veran Matić believes that finding out who deliberately prevented the clarification of the crimes in question would be the first step towards discovering the killers and those who ordered the murders of Slavko Ćuruvija, Dada Vujasinović and Milan Pantić.

"I have been launching this initiative for more than four years. The previous government was interested in principle, but there was no commitment. Now there has been a positive reaction from Aleksandar Vučić, as well as the director of the police and BIA. The local composition of the committee has recently been selected and soon a decision will be made on who from the international institutions will be able to help the most. I believe that in a few days or weeks, the government could take a decision on the establishment of the commission," Matić told the daily.

He added contacts had been made with the police and BIA on the manner in which the commission would work, how to collected all documents in one place, as well as about who and in what manner would analyze them.

The journalist association NUNS have said that they had no information about the commission and that they found this to be a cause for concern, but on the other hand voiced their support for the initiative.

Jovo Ćuruvija, the brother of the murdered journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, said that the commission would only be meaningful if it had as its members "people who care about justice and truth".